200 miles on 1/4 tank of gas?

Hey all we just bought this car 1993 Bonneville, is this possible to get 200 miles on just a 1/4 tank of gas or is the gauge screwed up? Thanks Steve

Some gas gauges are non-linear. On my GA the first 1/4 is about 150 miles, the last about 40.

Well, let's see...

That's typical in the Bonneville. My 93 was the same way, it'd stay stuck at the past full mark for 100 miles then just drop slowly after that, as soon as you pass the 3/4 mark it drops like a stone. I'd get about 19-20mpg combined, 25 on the highway with 125,000 miles.

In many cars I've had, and esp. our 95 Grand Prixs, both of them, the guage stayed near the high end farther than it should've. Especially when running on long distance rides they'd stay up on 3/4 full for over what the tank would really be, and then when the car was shut off at a rest stop or other stop where the motor was killed and then restarted, you'd get the true (well sort of, gas gauges in general are pretty iffy) reading.

Best way to tell is to run it 100 miles from a fill up and then refill and calculate the mpg.

fwiw our GP's got a good 19+ around town and upwards of 30-33 mpg on the hwy.

Dave

Mir welle bleiwe wat mir sin (Letzebuergesch)

My 2000 GP with the 3.8 varies greatly in mileage. I only got 17mpg the last 200 miles or so, probably due to 0 F temps. Ususally I'll get 20-21 combined city highway and 26-28 on the highway even going 75 with the air on. It's 30-32 at 60 without air on. The gas gage will stay pegged and not move usually for 20 miles. That's if I really fill it up.

So you are getting what sort of mpg? I can get about 35 mpg going down the highway with my 93 ga if I keep it down around 55.

Now to be honest, my guage is incorrect. It will stick at full till the tank is about 2/3 full then drop down fast. I just know that I have about 20 miles left when the gauge hits empty.

My 1970 GTO and 2002 Blazer also both exhibit this behavior. I never really thought much about it before, but if you draw a sketch of the side view of a float arm in a fuel tank, Trigonometry may explain this phenomenon. Think delta-theta vs delta-y on a fixed-length radius arm with delta-y (fuel consumtion) constant. GW

Yes it is indeed possible, those who use EXxon gas has reported 300 or miles from a 1/4 tank. Some have even reported 1500 miles per tankful while using Exxon Super Duper fuels!

I don't think so! 1500 miles per tank full? This is not diesel.